A blog about search, search skills, teaching search, learning how to search, learning how to use Google effectively, learning how to do research. It also covers a good deal of sensemaking and information foraging.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I'm in Maryland this week and had the chance to visit the Newseum in downtown Washington DC. It's an incredible museum of news, a place I highly recommend when you visit the DC. It has a great view of the capital building and on the top floor, a wonderful vista of the entire mall.

While I was there I spoke with man who told me that the beginning 45 words of the First Amendment to the constitution are engraved on giant slabs of marble on the front of the building. He went on to say that it was made of the same stone as was used to build the museum directly across the street. "The idea was that they wanted it to match, so they went and re-opened the original quarry."

He didn't know where the quarry was that was used as the source of stone, but he was pretty sure it was "down south" somewhere.

I was curious about where such a massive chunk of rock would come from, so I searched it out. It took me about 3 minutes to find an aerial photo of the quarry from whence it came.

I now know where the quarry is. Can you find that aerial image and provide the lat/long of the quarry?

For extra credit, can you find the lat/long of the place where the stone was cut to shape?

13 comments:

Googling for [newseum stone] gets a top hit of a Knoxville news story about the stone: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/12/newseum-showcases-tennessee-pink-marble/ , which tells you it was from the Endsley Quarry in Blount County, TN. From there, googling [Endsley Quarry] gives you a bunch of pages about houses on Endsley Quarry Lane, but halfway down page 3 you get a map: http://www.mindat.org/maps.php?id=127572. Wierdly, the Endsley Quarry Lane entries seem to completely confuse Google Maps/Earth, such that I was unable to find a map via [Endsley Quarry Google Earth]

Started with the bldg across the street - and worked my way backwards through:

1) Wikipedia entry for the National Portrait Gallery2) link to Wikipedia for Tenessee Pink marble (bonus: it isn't actually marble)3) Article reference to the marble used for the Newseum - Dead link4) Wayback machine for that article5) Reference to location of marble quarry 6)Google Maps, Satellite view of the quaryy:35.7536, -84.1341

7) As for the processing, I'm not as confident in the answer - the TN Valley Marble Co shows this location for their processing facility:

Step 1: google maps: newseum to find out what is across the streetStep 2: google: national museum of art marblehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703558004574581890709007568.htmlsays "Tennessee pink marble"Step 3: google: tennessee pink marble quarryGet http://candoromarble.org/?p=343 "Most recently, pink marble from Tennessee was used on two projects of national significance: 1. the floor of the United States Capitol Visitor Center, and 2. the “First Amendment” tablet facade of Washington D.C.s latest museum entitled “The Newseum.”

If one has the training and mindset of a geologist, it is important to note that the rock commonly referred to as Tennessee Pink Marble is actually not marble at all…it is limestone."

"The marble came from the Endsley Quarry in Friendsville and was provided by Tennessee Valley Marble before the company was purchased last year by Tennessee Marble Co."

"The panels were then placed in crates, put on trucks and shipped to the Washington area, where the letters and characters were etched into the marble by Rugo Stone of Lorton, Va."

Step 4: google maps: Endsley Quarry near Friendsville35.750552, -84.132134 seems to be the quarry on Endsley Quarry Lane, but 35.749238, -84.13062 is also possible (also on Endsley Quarry Lane, possibly different pits of the same quarry).